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Carney Lansford's single provides a walk-off win May 15, 1981 ... Through a half-dozen squalls and an hour's delay, the Sox battled back from a 3-0 deficit with Dwight Evans and Carl Yastrzemski homers, held on thanks to another brilliant performance by the bullpen (in this case Mr. Clear) and, with a two out, bottom-of-the-ninth rally culminated by Carney Lansford's bases-loaded single, beat the Royals, 4-3, before 22,943, their ninth victory in 11 games. There was so much that demonstrates what has happened: Lansford's clutch single and two superb defensive plays; the three hits and diving ninth-inning stop by Jerry (.347) Remy; Evans' 8th homer, 24th walk and perfect sacrifice bunt; Yastrzemski's 421st homer, his first into the screen since 1976 and Mark Fidrych; Clear's second win to go with two saves in four appearances with 3 1/ 3 innings of one-scratch-hit, three-strikeout relief; and, unnoticed in the box score, Tony Perez's battling loser Renie Martin from an 0-2 count to a walk to load the bases for Lansford. At one point in this game it looked as if it would be a struggle to ever get five innings in, what with dire predictions of 12 hours of rain at 10:15 p.m. At that point, Frank White and Willie Mays Aikens homers off Steve Crawford had given Richie Gale the 3-0 lead, a lead that was kept that close because Crawford was able to get U.L. Washington and Willie Wilson with runners at second and third, one out in the fourth. But in the fifth, Remy, who began three attempted rallies with hits, including his third perfect drag bunt in three games, and lined out hard twice, singled with one out. Evans, aiming to be the first MVP not to make the All- Star ballot since Fred Lynn in 1975, then jacked a tremendous homer over the screen. Next, Yaz drove a Gale fastball to left, into the wind and into the screen. That gave him his second homer in three games, the club back-to-back homers in consecutive games and six in two games. Crawford had pitched well, but when he walked Cesar Geronimo with one out in the sixth, Ralph Houk came out and got him. From December on, Ralph Houk talked about the bullpen, and here we are 30 (16-14) games into the season and the starters have five complete games and gone into the eighth only seven times (with a 7-12 record), while the bullpen is 9-2. Clear had Geronimo on third when he got the final out of the sixth, then had Hal McRae on second when he struck out Aikens and Amos Otis to end the seventh. Otherwise, the one hit was John Wathan's 38-foot dribbler, and except for the fact that Remy had to charge Wilson's hopper and dive for Aikens' grounder, he breezed. It was telling about the fall of one Dan Quisenberry that he sat as the bottom of the ninth proceeded. Martin had two outs, none on, too, when he gave Yastrzemski his respect and walked him. With Jamie Quirk on the line, Jim Rice singled past him, and after going 0-and- 2, the remarkable Perez kept fighting and fighting, sending one ball foul by feet to right, lining one foul past third, and finally getting a walk. Which brought up Lansford. He took one slider up and over the plate and got the same pitch again. He drilled it into right field for the walk-off win. |
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